You get to visit some improbable spots when you're Irish and off to see HMHB. Bilston, or what we saw of it, seemed like a pleasant enough little spot though. Making our way from Shannon to Bristol (seamlessly ...that's a first. This online check-in is the business) and then renting a fiesta to get to Wolverhampton seemed straightforward enough. That was until the route planner map threw us at the very first roundabout instruction and sent us into Bristols rush hour.
Arriving in Bilston and finding our hotel by 6.30 didn't leave us with a huge amount of time to fill. But the lamb shank in the hotel bar was the business and I was also able to reacquaint myself with my long lost buddy Newcastle Brown Ale (though a post-gig re-union with pork scratchings didn't go quite so well).
Nice venue the Robin. The sound was pretty good and the lads seemed to enjoy themselves ...over-bearing lights notwithstanding.
Scrawled the set in my notebook as the show progressed and my handwriting had disintegrated into illegible scratch-like marks by the time they were half way through and the Newcastle had kicked in. Bad Loser(s) On Yahoo Chess sounds more powerful every time I hear it. Everythings AOR, For What Is Chatteris and Monmore Hare's Running were other highlights for me. The "We've got a song called that" answer to the chap heckling for the latter was the funniest thing I've heard at a gig since a misfortune shouted at David Gedge to "play that one again" after 'Kennedy' at a WP gig I was at a while back.
Good gig lads. I'll hardly make Ulverston(???) or Sheffield so maybe a July weekend somewhere close to one of the abandoned WW2 airfields Ryanair fly into would be just the job. Well done again.